Refrigerator appliance



Sept 1, 19% c. P. SWANSQN 2,522,313

REFRIGERATOR APPLIANCE Filed Dec. 29, 1947 Snoentor CLARENCE JW4/VJ'0/V 5 Q; zy/ww (Ittomeg Patented Sept. 12, 1950 UNITED' STATES PATENT OFFICE REFRIGERATOR APPLIANCE Clarence P. Swanson, Shreveport, La.

Application December 29, 1947, Serial No. 794,219

6 Claims. (Cl. 62-1) My invention relates to refrigerator appliances in general, but more in particular to a removable cold storage unit adapted to be used in connection with a prior art electric refrigerator.

It is one of the objects of this invention to provide a cold storage unit which may be removably inserted into a prior art electric refrigerator and which utilizes the cooling system of the refrigerator as its cooling medium.

It is another object of this invention to provide a supplemental cold storage unit which may be placed adjacent to the cooling coils of a prior art refrigerator on either one side or the other thereof and which provides a compartment substantially insulated from areas other than the cooling area surrounding the cooling coils against which it is placed.

Another object of this invention is to provide a supplemental cold Storage unit for a prior art refrigerator which may easily be installed or removed for cleaning, and which has a, conveniently placed door for easy accessibility to the interior thereof.

It is another object of this invention to provide a supplemental cold storage unit for prior art refrigerators which is easy to manufacture in various sizes or shapes to suit the refrigerator in which it is to be used.

Other objects and advantages will be found in the course of the following detailed description when viewed together with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a broken elevational view of a standard form of refrigerator with my invention in a cold storage appliance applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the appliance unit showing the mounting means removed therefrom.

Fig. 3 is a broken cross-sectional view taken along lines 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a broken sectional view taken along lines 4-4 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is another sectional view taken along lines 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawing for a detailed description of the invention, the reference numeral l0 represents a domestic refrigerator cabinet having a cooling unit H provided with a door I! whereby access is had to the main cooling compartment ll. In this main cooling compartment I3 the ice cubes are frozen and there is usually a small space either above or below the trays for the storage of frozen foods. While this space can advantageously be used, there is never room enough to store foods in any quantity. Meats kept in such a place of storage must be sufficientl wrapped to prevent odors from the cooling unit from penetrating them and rendering them ill tasting. Due to the usual small capacityr of such a storage locker. the average housewife is careful in choosing not only the quantities but also the kinds of meats or other frozen foods that must be kept for a period of several days.

My invention as a supplemental food storage locker is best understood by reference to F18. 2 of the drawing which shows an elongated boxlike structure having three sides and one of its ends closed. While the device may be constructed of various materials, I have preferred to form the various wall sections of two separate sheets of metallic material, thus making an outer wall l4 and an inner wall It. Between these two walls is a layer of heat insulating material 20, which may be cork or a finely granulated lava rock bearing the trade name of Pearlite, which has an extremely low coefficient of heat conduction.

The opening it in one of the side walls is surrounded by a rubber gasket l1 which is provided with a groove l8 adapted to be forced over a projecting rim l9 formed on the circumferential edge of the opening it.

The forward end of the unit is provided with a hinged door II, a cross section of which is shown in Fig. 5. It will be noted that the door is also formed of an inner wall section 22 and an outer wall section 23. and the space between filled with the insulating material 20. The circumferential edges of the door 2| are made to form an offset 24 into which is placed a rubber ring or washer 25 adapted to seal the door against the edges of the opening in the unit when closed. Any form of conventional'spring latch may be used to keep the door 2| in the closed position.

In the two opposing walls adjacent to the opening it of the unit are small locking slots 26, each slot being adapted to receive the head of a rivet or screw 21 which is attached to a vacuum cup 24. These screws extend through a small spacer bar 29 which keeps the screw heads spaced at the exact distance between the locking slots 28. Such an arrangement also allows the entire unit to'be removed or attached with ease and without the necessity of any tools. The locking slots 24 are also placed in the same position on the outside surface of the opposite wall whereby the entire unit may be inverted and mounted on the opposite side of the cooling unit i I.

A brief description of the operation of my device will follow. Let us assume that a housewife is buying i'oodstufls in preparation for a special occasion such as a week end, a party or a holiday, and is anticipating a larger number of servings than usual. Since the occasion is only a temporary one there is no need of purchasing a deep freeze unit or another refrigerator in which to store the extra foodstuffs that must be kept at a low temperature.

Provided with this invention, the housewife will place the heads of the screws 21 of the mounting cups 28 into the locking slots 26 of the unit and slip it into her domestic box 10. After placing the open side l6 up close against the cooling unit II to where the rubber gasket I! yieldably engages it, she will push upwardly on the bottom of the unit until the vacuum cups 28 affix themselves against the upper inside wall surface of the cabinet in where they will sufficiently support the unit and its contents until they are removed.

The housewife now is provided with a temporary storage space having a temperature onl a few degrees above the inner cooling compartment i3, and in which frozen foods may be safely kept without fear of spoiling. Extra ice cubes may be frozen in the regular manner and placed in storage for special occasions or may even be frozen in the device, if desired. Desserts and salads may be kept without being disturbed as might be occasioned in the former crowded combination freezing and storage locker.

In an actual temperature test made, with the freezing controls of a domestic refrigerator at a normal setting, a small glass of water was placed in the device. After a. few hours an inspection showed that the water had completely frozen. It will be remembered that the rubber gasket I! is pressed snugly against the coils of the refrigerator so that the inner chamber of my device is simply a dead air space, insulated from the general storage area of the refrigerator by insulated wall sections as described above. It will also be noted that my device would perform substantially as well without any insulation at all in the various wall sections. Any kind of partition walls which would provide a dead air space around a portion of the cooling coils of the refrigerator would provide an area which could be maintained at a much lower temperature than the general storage area of the refrigerator.

The device is preferably installed just after the refrigerator coils have been defrosted. In this manner the rubber gasket is permitted to fit snugly against the cooling unit without any interference by ice formations.

Any cracks or openings that might be left between the gasket I1 and the coils of the cooling unit II will automatically seal themselves after a few hours by the formation of ice, to effect a complete dead air space within the inner chamber. a

When not in use, or for the purpose of cleaning, the unit is easily removed from its position in the refrigerator, either b lifting it from its engagement with the vacuum cups 28 or by removing the cups together with the entire unit. In some instances, where the unit has been in use for several days, the ice will have formed over the rubber gasket to such an extent that it will not free itself easily from the cooling unit II. In such a case, the unit is lifted to one side, in a mannervto release the gasket I! from its slidable mounting on the rim I9, and the unit removed from its position in the box. The operator will then remove the gasket l1 from the ice formation on the cooling unit H and re-attach the gasket to the rim I9.

The unit is preferably made of a metallic material having a high heat conducting factor such as aluminum, but may also be molded of a plastic, made of wood or other materialto P mit flexibility of design or to facilitate manufacturing.

Other changes in the construction and arrangements of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.

I claim:

1. A food storage box comprised of an outer solid side wall, a solid top wall, a solid bottom wall, a solid rear wall, a front wall having an opening, a door for said opening and a side wall provided with an opening adapted to be positioned adjacent to the cooling coil unit of a domestic mechanical refrigerator, an outwardly disposed bead extending entirely around the perimeter of said opening in said side wall, a flexible washer mounted on said bead and a means for mounting said box on an inner wall surface of a domestic mechanical refrigerator provided with a cooling unit to bring said washer into contact with the cooling coil unit.

2. A supplemental food storage container for use in a domestic mechanical refrigerator having a depending cooling coil arrangement exposed in the food storage area of the same, comprising a box provided with an outer side wall, a top and bottom wall and a rear wall, a front opening and a door for said opening, the remaining side wall provided with an elongated opening adapted to be positioned adjacent one of the depending sides of said cooling coil arrangement of said refrigerator, and releasable holding means adapted to hold said box in a suspended position from the inner roof surface of said refrigerator and in a manner to abut said side wall opening of said box to the outer surface of said cooling coil arrangement, whereby the food storage area in said box may be cooled by the cooling coil arrangement of said refrigerator.

3. The device as claimed in claim 2 wherein a flexible washer is mounted on said box surrounding the opening in the side wall of the same.

4. An auxiliary food storing box for use in a domestic mechanical refrigerator provided with a cooling coil unit, said food storing box provided with side walls, top and bottom walls and front and rear walls, said front wall including a door, said side walls being constructed to resist the transmission of heat therethrough, one of said side walls provided with an opening having a projecting bead around the same, a resilient washer mounted on said bead and a means for mounting said box in a refrigerator comprising locking slots formed in the upper wall of said box, bolts removably inserted into said slots and vacuum cups attached to said bolts.

5. The device as claimed in claim 4 wherein both upper and lower walls of said box are provided with locking slots whereby said opening may be disposed in right or left hand positions with respect to a cooling coil unit it is to contact.

6. An auxiliary food storage box for use in a domestic mechanical refrigerator provided with a cooling coil unit, said box comprising an elongated structure having an opening in one of its side walls and a door in one of its end walls, means for mounting said box in said refrigerator comprising a plurality of vacuum cups removably around said side wall opening of said box, the washer against said coils to eflect a dead air circumferential edge of said washer being formed space within said box. into a projecting lip and slanted inwardly to- CLARENCE P. SWANSQN. ward said opening. said mounting means per mitting said box to be positioned at a distance 5 R ERENCES CITED {mm said unit to eflect a Viewable The following references are of record in the gagement of the lip of said Washer with the tanm of t t gential surface of the cooling coils of said refriz erator, whereby ice formations, created by the UNITED STATES PATENTS cooling coils of said refrigerator, will seal said 10 m r Name Date 2,488,197 Jensky Nov. 15. 1949 

